It's time to check in.

Today Delta sent me an email to inform me that it's time to check in!  For some reason my company bought me a round trip ticket and the return portion leaves tomorrow.  It's funny to think that if this were a two week vacation I'd be packing up and heading home.  Instead it feels like I'm only half way unpacked here.
Well in terms of physical unpacking I'm pretty much in to my new apartment.  I must have been shopping a dozen times already for things like juice, coffee, neck ties, an iron, a new belt, multi colored pens, a squishy soccer ball, drain cleaner and  bags to do more shopping with.  Somehow after all of this I do not have a phone or internet access at my home.  This is irritating.  Especially since it took me like a day to get a phone last time.  Apparently the fact that I misplaced my official seal could slow things down even more.  The seal or "hanko" is a stamp with Kanji for a person's name.  It's used in place of a signature.  In my case my boss made up name Kanji for me: Mai (to dance or whirl) and keru (to kick).
Work has been going alright.  Two days a week I'm riding the train to the town of Tajimi, which means I'm going from the far northwest corner to the east corner of a 10 million person metropolis.  The ride there is okay, but for some reason the 10pm train out of Nagoya is always full.  What where doing until 10pm downtown Japanese businessman?  Couldn't you just do that at your house??
Classes look like they should be easy.  I have one elementary class that I teach 10 times a week called Popcorn English.  It's actually designed to be taught by a Japanese teacher so all the English is pre-recorded.  The students just follow a power point, repeat and listen to my various lewd interjections.  I have been dispatched to teach it at a few select branches because management feels other schools are encroaching on our territory.  Schools in our safe territory will have the classes  taught by the regular Japanese staff.  I am also required to stand outside as the students arrive for class.  Tactical.
I gave my introductory speech at the big company meeting on Tuesday.  I made it very polite and short.  Later several new Japanese employees gave speeches.  One guy described how he drove his car through 46 different prefectures and another guy talked about how his most noticeable asset was his powerful baritone voice.  I regret worrying about my speech now.
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I also went to my favorite bar yesterday only to find that it was totally empty at 8pm on Saturday and the only staff member left was the owner.  He was also very drunk.  Kind of a downer couple of days.
Well my first week back was fairly relaxing and kind of dream-like in a way, but the second week was pretty much run and gun.  Next week promises to be more of the same.  I'd like to do some reflecting but I have to use my computer time to look up a few a things for this week's classes.  Keep it classy and check back in a week or so.